Monday, September 28, 2020

Perversion by Omission (Matt. 5:43)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2020 9:02 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  Perversion by Omission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:43

 

            Message of the verse:  43 "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

 

            As we looked at the passage from Lev. 19:18 we see a difference than what the Pharisees had come up with:  “’You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”  The highlighted portion of the verse in Leviticus is what is different than the traditions of the Pharisees as it was simply inconceivable that they should care for any other person as much as they cared for themselves.

 

            In my Bible reading for today I was reading from the 22nd chapter of Matthew among other chapters and in that chapter one of the Pharisees asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment in the Law and His answer was that we are to love the Lord and then added that we are to love our neighbors, so we realize that the Pharisees knew the correct way, but chose not to follow it.

 

            I suppose that this same kind of problem exists in churches today as they teach things that they think are correct, but when it comes down to Scriptures they are not correct.  The problem with the scribes and the Pharisees is that they loved themselves more than they loved to keep the Word of God in their lives.  They thought that they were a step above all the people and let them know that.  The same is true in our country with the majority of the politicians in our country who are voted in by the people only to think that they are better than the people who voted them in.

 

            As believers we are to love the Lord first and foremost and then love our neighbors and the parable of the Good Samaritan found in the book of Luke shows who are neighbors are. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “But the standard God had given the Jews was supernatural rather than natural, and they must have chafed under it, because they knew they could not live up to it in their own power.  Besides that, they did not want to live up to it, and therefore simply excised ‘as yourself’ from God’s standard of love.  Our example will always be our Lord Jesus Christ as He left heaven to become a man and He did it because of His great love for us, and then took our sin upon Him on the cross so that we could then have His righteousness that the Father now sees all believers.

 

            MacArthur goes on to explain “Along with that significant omission, tradition had narrowed the meaning of neighbor to include only those people they preferred and approved of—which amounted basically to their own kind.  Such obviously profane people as tax-collectors and ordinary sinners were despised as outcasts and as not being worthy even to be considered Jews.

 

            We know that the tax-collectors were Jews and they prayed upon their own people becoming rich because they collected too much taxes so that they could become rich and that is why the Jews hated them, but Jesus, as seen in Matthew and Zacchaeus who both became believers. 

 

            MacArthur concludes “But even that restriction of ‘neighbor’ was not narrow enough.  The scribes and Pharisees also despised and looked down on the common people.  They dismissed those who believed in Jesus by saying, ‘No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he?  But this multitude which does not know the Law is accursed’ (John 7:48-49).  Ironically, the proud and arrogant religious leaders who knew, but perverted, the law disdained as ‘accused’ the common people who they felt did not know it.”  This paragraph kind of reminds me of being a deplorable. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Learn to love others as Christ loves me.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord that the little trip we had planned for today will work out.

 

9/28/2020 9:29 AM    

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